THE ARMED / PHANTOGRAM / QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE - PORTLAND, ME 8.11.2023

Aug 11

Photos and Words By Adam W Gerhold

The Earth’s Greatest Band and our Perfect Saviors, an artistic music collective, secret, deliberate, humbling, original, incredible, REFRACT:
The Armed.

A rush of nervous excitement took over the Cross Arena in Portland, ME as the lights dimmed and a single spotlight lit up a saxophone playing member of the Earth’s Greatest Band. Notes cascading from the brass instrument soared through waxy eardrums and hearing protecting foam before the lights came up on the creative collective. The next moments, minutes, hours, days, were a flash of color, audio assault, and sensory overdose. We could have been there for years and it would have felt like a flash, a drop of time in an endlessly flowing river. What have we become here? Are we no different than the animals? Who’s to say? However, we are blessed by one of the most exciting things in music since a bloody Iggy Pop cemented his place in punk rock history.
Words are somewhat wasted on the Armed. This rambling of nonsense and gibberish can only slightly shed light onto the experience of witnessing The Armed live. So just go out and live.

I'm drama in these khaki towns
I think they feel the allure
Every single breath — a work of art
My mere existence is a part of the show

THE ARMED